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archery, Chinese and Tibetan swords and weapons, Chinese arms and armour, chinese swords, oriental arms, qing weapons arms and armour, South East Asian weapons

Qin Chinese recurved Bow with arrows

A Chinese Manchu recurved or compound bow from the 19th century. Still strung with its original silk cord bowstring, and retaining two original arrows. Chinese compound bows  such as this were made for military use and carefully constructed with techniques going back hundreds of years. The black horn tip of this example is carved with a makers signature to denote the quality of the workmanship. The siyahs or bow tips are covered with white rayskin, the front of the bow arms with strips of coloured bark, the back of the arms are broad strips of black horn, Between the inner and outer face is a sinew core which gives the bow its powerful elastic pull. the grip is wrapped with cork. The two arrows which accomany it are good examples, one has damage where the tip beneath the head is split with a little broken off, and one part of the nock missing. Both arrows retain most of their flight feathers. The bow itself is in reasonable condition, one bone string rest is lacking, and some loss to the bark outer covering in places, and general age wear to parts. This bow was brought back as booty from Beijing by a German soldier (the great grandfather of the previous owner ) fighting in the Boxer Rebellion during the 1900/1901 period. 

 

 

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Wonderful Antique Bronze Lantaka ship or deck cannon from Borneo/Brunei with crocodile

A superb early Bronze Lantaka deck cannon or swivel gun from Northen Borneo /Brunei. These ornate bronze canons were typically used along the gunwales and decks of ships, most notoriously those used by the Malay pirates who were active in the South China Seas around Borneo and the Philippines. This examples is small, cast from heavy bronze and ornate with a cast crocodile mounted to the front, and also most interestingly has an exploded breech section showing a failure during active firing!! 19th century or earlier

archery, Chinese arms and armour

antique Chinese Repeating crossbow…

a second rare repeating crossbow Chu-ko-nu from China soon to be added to the store.. this fantastic 19th century bow has been restrung and is fully working allowing the user to see and feel exactly how it would have been used in combat. Used against the British in the 1850’s and the Japanese in the 1890’s, this ingenious and effective weapon has been used in China since the Han dynasty! used against mass troops and with bolts of steel probably poison-tipped.. supplied with a few dummy bolts..